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This article compares the results of a pair of course material surveys for faculty and students conducted before and after the COVID-19 pandemic by academic librarians at a private liberal arts college in the northeastern U.S. Findings indicate that overall students are spending significantly less per semester on required course materials, but some are going without significantly more required materials due to cost. Furthermore, first-year students were not found to be spending any less than prior to the pandemic and, as a result, spent significantly more in 2023 than most of their more experienced peers. The decrease in average student spending corresponds with our findings that faculty became more cost conscious and expanded efforts to make required materials affordable by assigning more OER and fewer materials which they consider to be overpriced or unaffordable. As a result of these and other strategies, by 2023 significantly more faculty had been able to develop courses for which the required materials cost nothing for students. The authors discuss the importance of these and additional findings, placing them in the context of similar surveys and suggesting ways that the data can be used to inform current library practices and future research. • Faculty became more cost conscious over the course of the pandemic. • Usage of open educational resources increased by between 10 % and 15 %. • The percentage of students spending less than $100 a semester doubled to 33 %. • First-year students are spending the most and saw no savings since 2020. • More first and second-year students are going without required materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Supplemental Digital Content is Available in the Text. Introduction: Childhood experiences affect health across the lifespan. Evidence-based strategies targeting early-life stress are emerging. Nevertheless, faculty physicians' preparation to incorporate this science into practice has not been well studied. This study explores medical faculty knowledge and beliefs, timing and route of knowledge acquisition, perceived relevance and application of study topics, and characteristics associated with concept mastery. Methods: The authors developed and administered an exploratory survey to faculty from six departments at two medical schools. The team analyzed responses using quantitative and qualitative methods. Results: Eighty-one (8.8%) eligible faculty completed the survey. Of respondents, 53 (65.4%) achieved high knowledge, 34 (42.0%) high beliefs, and 42 (59.1%) high concept exposure question scores, but only 6 (7.4%) through a formal route. Although 78 (96.8%) respondents indicated that survey concepts are relevant, only 18 (22.2%) reported fully incorporating them in their work, and 48 (59.2%) identified the need for additional coaching. Respondents reporting full incorporation were significantly more likely to attain high concept exposure scores (17 respondents, 94.4%, versus 25 respondents, 39.7%, P <.001). Quantitative and qualitative analysis highlighted limited respondent awareness of trauma prevalence among health care workers, lack of familiarity with interventions, and time and resource challenges addressing childhood adversity. Discussion: Although survey respondents had some familiarity with study concepts and perceived their relevance, most are not fully applying them. Results suggest that exposure to study concepts is associated with full incorporation. Therefore, intentional faculty development is essential to prepare faculty to include this science in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unsustainable student debt and a precarious labor market continue to raise public doubts over the value of a college degree. Observers note decades of grade inflation, eroding confidence in academic standards. Yet little attention has been paid to the perceptions of professors themselves. This report fills the gap by surveying 223 tenured professors in U.S. public universities. We query faculty on sensitive questions central to debate over academic standards. Results show a substantial fraction of professors affirms the serious problems of grade inflation and declining standards. Moreover, political orientation is the best predictor of where faculty stand on these delicate questions. We close by encouraging viewpoint diversity in higher education and greater self-awareness among liberal faculty of our collective biases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the student's academic performance in the School of Engineering at Universidad Nacional de Colombia - Bogota Campus. The impact is assessed from a quantitative approach based on (i) student's grades, (ii) student's progress in their curriculum and (iii) dropped courses. In addition, results from a faculty survey (qualitative approach) are presented to expand some explanatory perspectives on the main academic changes during the pandemic. Results show a significant increase in the average numerical grade as well as in the probability of a course being dropped during the pandemic conditions. Furthermore, the student's average curriculum progress per semester grew approximately 18%. A differentiated academic impact, depending on sex and family income was observed which may be included in future post-pandemic programs. The survey reflects a new faculty's perspective on evaluation tools and methodologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the student’s academic performance in the School of Engineering at Universidad Nacional de Colombia – Bogota Campus. The impact is assessed from a quantitative approach based on (i) student’s grades, (ii) student’s progress in their curriculum and (iii) dropped courses. In addition, results from a faculty survey (qualitative approach) are presented to expand some explanatory perspectives on the main academic changes during the pandemic. Results show a significant increase in the average numerical grade as well as in the probability of a course being dropped during the pandemic conditions. Furthermore, the student’s average curriculum progress per semester grew approximately 18%. A differentiated academic impact, depending on sex and family income was observed which may be included in future post-pandemic programs. The survey reflects a new faculty’s perspective on evaluation tools and methodologies.

Context: Currently, a major curricular reform in the form of competency-based medical education (CBME) curriculum is being rolled out across all medical colleges in India. However, it is important to find out and address the concerns of faculty regarding various aspects of this new curriculum. Aim: To analyze the concerns of the faculty members of medical colleges in India in response to the changes emerging from the adoption and implementation of the new curriculum through the concerns-based adoption model by applying the stages of concern (SoC) questionnaire. Methodology: A multicentric, cross-sectional quantitative study involving faculty members currently working in medical colleges and with more than 2 years of teaching experience was conducted using SoC questionnaire (SoCQ). The questionnaire was delivered as Google Form. Results: Of the 744 faculty participants, 41.1% (306) of faculty belonged to the 31–40 years age group followed by the 41–50 years age group (267, 35.9%). Respondents rated their level of concern differently among the seven SoC - percentile scores were highest in Stage 0– awareness (94) and least in Stage 4– consequences (59). An appreciably higher percentile scores were seen at the consequences stage (63 vs. 54), collaboration stage (80 vs. 68), and refocusing stage (77 vs. 69) in those faculty members who were trained in curriculum implementation support program (CISP) compared to the untrained group. However; the SoCQ profiles of CISP trained and untrained faculty were very much similar. SoCQ profiles of holders of advanced training in medical education and non-holders were also the same. Conclusion: Almost after 2 years of well-planned introduction of the CBME curriculum in India, the generalized faculty profile is still suggestive of interested but non-user type for the adoption of CBME. However; compared to untrained faculty, CISP trained faculty is more concerned about the impact of CBME on students, collaborating with colleagues for its proper implementation and exploring more benefits from the implementation of CBME, indicating that more hand-holding is required for faculty development beyond CISP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Education in ecology and evolution often utilizes field instruction to teach key learning outcomes. Remote teaching of learning outcomes that have been traditionally taught in the field, necessitated by the COVID‐19 pandemic, presents unique challenges for students, instructors, and institutions. A survey of 117 faculty conducted during spring 2020 revealed substantial reduction of learning outcomes typically taught in the field, and frequent substitutions of less active and more instructor‐centered remote activities for field activities. The survey revealed generally negative instructor views on many remote teaching substitutions, yet also showed several approaches that instructors regarded as more effective, despite potential challenges with equitably teaching them. I suggest several models of remote substitutions for traditional field teaching of identification, field techniques, data collection, and study design in the context of the results of this survey.

When University of Wisconsin–La Crosse was faced with a pandemic-related 20% reduction to the library's collections budget two months into the 2021 fiscal year, it meant painful decisions needed to be made about the library's journal subscriptions. To accomplish this task, librarians surveyed faculty and instructional staff to generate a list of journals essential to teaching and research. Librarians analyzed the subscription status, access information, and usage statistics of the titles listed on the survey. Their findings reinforced the importance of gathering qualitative data from users to inform collection decisions, and the danger in relying too heavily on usage statistics as a marker of a journal's value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research aims to examine whether faculty's perceptions of the importance of the library's resources and services for their teaching, clinical practice or research were different based on disciplines, and to explore the degree that faculty's perceptions of the library's importance and its role have changed over time. The findings revealed that online journals, databases, and Interlibrary loan (ILL) were considered by the majority of faculty as the most important for faculty's research. Another key finding indicated that faculty from social sciences perceived assistance from a subject specialist librarian as more important than faculty members from physical sciences. The top three strategies faculty use to obtain articles not available through the university include searching for a freely available online version, using ILL, and obtaining it from Google Scholar. These findings assist the library to better understand our user community's needs. As this survey is regularly deployed, it also allows us to observe potential changes over time, and as necessary, make strategic changes to library resources and services. • Online journals, databases, and ILL are most important for faculty research. • Assistance from a subject specialist was ranked highest by social science faculty. • For unavailable articles, searching for a free online version was the top strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Undergraduate research experiences (UREs), whether within the context of a mentor-mentee experience or a classroom framework, represent an excellent opportunity to expose students to the independent scholarship model. The high impact of undergraduate research has received recent attention in the context of STEM disciplines. Reflecting a 2017 survey of statistics faculty, this article examines the perceived benefits of UREs, as well as barriers to the incorporation of UREs, specifically within the field of statistics. Viewpoints of students, faculty mentors, and institutions are investigated. Further, the article offers several strategies for leveraging characteristics unique to the field of statistics to overcome barriers and thereby provide greater opportunity for undergraduate statistics students to gain research experience.

Historically, the library Reserve collections provide access to required readings so students could read these materials in one place for a limited time. This system guarantees the availability of required readings whenever the library is open and contributes to the concept of accessibility, affordability, and equality of higher education. But what happens if the library space becomes inaccessible? What alternatives can be offered when even e-versions of required readings are non-existent? One of the major concerns for the imminent remote operability of the Lloyd G.Sealy library during COVID-19 lockdown was Reserves. When the John Jay College campus was shut down, the virtual 24/7 library operation became a reality. The reference services continued to function via email and chat and the questions about access to the physical Reserve collection and demand for those resources to be available in e-format began to form an avalanche. The author surveyed the teaching faculty about the use of the library's Reserve collections during the remote teaching mode and analyzed data to assess the functionality of the Reserves in order to help the library make preparations for the Fall 2021 semester as well as envision the post-pandemic future for the Reserve collections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Education in ecology and evolution often utilizes field instruction to teach key learning outcomes. Remote teaching of learning outcomes that have been traditionally taught in the field, necessitated by the COVID‐19 pandemic, presents unique challenges for students, instructors, and institutions. A survey of 117 faculty conducted during spring 2020 revealed substantial reduction of learning outcomes typically taught in the field, and frequent substitutions of less active and more instructor‐centered remote activities for field activities. The survey revealed generally negative instructor views on many remote teaching substitutions, yet also showed several approaches that instructors regarded as more effective, despite potential challenges with equitably teaching them. I suggest several models of remote substitutions for traditional field teaching of identification, field techniques, data collection, and study design in the context of the results of this survey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background To assess mentorship experiences among the faculty of a large academic department of medicine and to examine how those experiences relate to academic advancement and job satisfaction. Methods Among faculty members in the Massachusetts General Hospital Department of Medicine, we assessed personal and professional characteristics as well as job satisfaction and examined their relationship with two mentorship dimensions: (1) currently have a mentor and (2) role as a mentor. We also developed a mentorship quality score and examined the relationship of each mentorship variable to academic advancement and job satisfaction. Results 553/988 (56.0%) of eligible participants responded. 64.9% reported currently having a mentor, of whom 21.3% provided their mentor a low quality score; 66.6% reported serving as a mentor to others. Faculty with a current mentor had a 3.50-fold increased odds of serving as a mentor to others (OR 3.50, 95% CI 1.84–6.67, p

Undergraduate research experiences (UREs), whether within the context of a mentor-mentee experience or a classroom framework, represent an excellent opportunity to expose students to the independent scholarship model. The high impact of undergraduate research has received recent attention in the context of STEM disciplines. Reflecting a 2017 survey of statistics faculty, this article examines the perceived benefits of UREs, as well as barriers to the incorporation of UREs, specifically within the field of statistics. Viewpoints of students, faculty mentors, and institutions are investigated. Further, the article offers several strategies for leveraging characteristics unique to the field of statistics to overcome barriers and thereby provide greater opportunity for undergraduate statistics students to gain research experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The two primary means for accomplishing Open Access (OA) goals are the 'author pays' or Gold model and the 'self-archiving' or Green model, both of which can have variations or hybrids. There is a growing schism between proponents of the Gold and Green models. Scholar uptake on self-archiving has been very limited. At the same time, a great deal of concern has been expressed regarding the Gold model, particularly with regard to cost and the role of peer-review lite journals. With the evolving OA environment as a backdrop, the authors conducted a survey of university engineering faculty in order to better understand their OA practices and attitudes. The scholarly communication needs and activities of engineering faculty are more diverse than other scholars in that they have a broader and more varied literature, which includes journal articles, conference papers, technical reports, standards, handbook information, patents, and grey literature. The survey was comprised of 12 Likert scale questions and 3 open comment questions. The results of the survey of engineering faculty were consistent with other studies that have revealed concerns over the author pays model and a reluctance to self-archive in the university institutional repository (IR). Survey results showed that engineering faculty do not extensively publish in author pays Gold journals and had limited plans to do so in the future. In line with other studies, the survey revealed that there was a lack of familiarity with campus IRs and a very small uptake rate for depositing research output in institutional repositories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The primary objective of this study was to explore student and faculty perception of the objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) to assess the clinical competence of 5th year medical students. Methods: Two validated tools were used to survey students' and faculty perception of the OSCE as an assessment tool. The questionnaires were self-administered and handed to the students immediately after the OSCE was conducted. Subjects were 29 female students who had completed their 3-week Internal Medicine rotation and 15 faculty members who had participated in evaluating the students. The response rate was 100%. The OSCE comprised of 21 active stations involving skills like history taking standardized patients were used, physical examination, and data interpretation for which real patients were used. Results: Majority of students, 63.2% indicated that the OSCE assessed their skills fairly. This was also true for 80% thought the OSCE was a fair method of assessing students' skills as well as a better assessment tool than the traditional long/short case exams. Conclusion: The OSCE was positively perceived by 5th year medical students and faculty members as a tool that can fairly assess students' clinical skills.

Broward College, an early adopter of Guided Pathways, has made efforts to incorporate information literacy throughout the curriculum by embedding librarians in pathways and through General Education learning outcomes. However, although college administrators and faculty acknowledge that the integration of information literacy instruction throughout the curriculum is crucial to student success, librarians have struggled to become true teaching partners. A survey was administered to discipline faculty to determine attitudes, perceptions, and a self-assessment of information literacy. This study includes a nuanced analysis of discipline faculty responses and reveals conflicting attitudes and behaviors related to information literacy instruction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: To assess mentorship experiences among the faculty of a large academic department of medicine and to examine how those experiences relate to academic advancement and job satisfaction. Methods: Among faculty members in the Massachusetts General Hospital Department of Medicine, we assessed personal and professional characteristics as well as job satisfaction and examined their relationship with two mentorship dimensions: (1) currently have a mentor and (2) role as a mentor. We also developed a mentorship quality score and examined the relationship of each mentorship variable to academic advancement and job satisfaction. Results: 553/988 (56.0%) of eligible participants responded. 64.9% reported currently having a mentor, of whom 21.3% provided their mentor a low quality score; 66.6% reported serving as a mentor to others. Faculty with a current mentor had a 3.50-fold increased odds of serving as a mentor to others (OR 3.50, 95% CI 1.84–6.67, p < 0.001). Faculty who reported their mentorship as high quality had a decreased likelihood of being stalled in rank (OR 0.28, 95% CI: 0.10–0.78, p = 0.02) and an increased likelihood of high job satisfaction (OR 3.91, 95% CI 1.77–8.63, p < 0.001) compared with those who reported their mentorship of low quality; further, having a low mentorship score had a similar relationship to job satisfaction as not having a mentor. Conclusions: A majority of faculty survey respondents had mentorship, though not all of it of high caliber. Because quality mentorship significantly and substantially impacts both academic progress and job satisfaction, efforts devoted to improve the adoption and the quality of mentorship should be prioritized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Information Science & Technology Association/Joho no Kagaku to Gijutsu is the property of Information Science & Technology Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In an effort to provide better service to the University of Lethbridge satellite campus locations, a survey was done of instructors on the northern campuses regarding their knowledge and use of the University of Lethbridge Library services available to them. This was a follow-up to a survey conducted in 2011, at which time it was found that many of the instructors at the northern campuses were unaware of many available services. The survey was recreated in order to familiarize new instructors with the services offered by the Library and determine if awareness had increased over the past three years. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Over the course of a year, 98 syllabi were collected from history, English, philosophy, religion, and foreign literatures and languages departments at a large university in the Southeast. The syllabi were analyzed for potential additions to the print collection. In addition to the syllabus study, a survey was conducted of all faculty in those departments to establish their views toward syllabi and the library's place in providing access to items on syllabi. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Online surveys are increasingly common due to the myriad of benefits they offer over traditional survey methods. However, research has shown that response rates to web-based surveys are typically lower than to traditional surveys and can possibly yield biased results. University-based faculty members are a unique cohort that may be ideally suited as subjects for web-based surveys. This paper presents the results of a formal assessment of response bias from a large scale anonymous national survey of faculty members in the discipline of health administration. Results suggested that response bias was at levels undetectable using standard methodological approaches. This paper provides the reader with an overview of steps that can assist evaluators in assessing response bias from data collected with surveys. Thus, it will be of interest to researchers utilising electronic survey methods, especially those interested in surveying university-based faculty members. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the results of a faculty survey conducted by the Hong Kong Baptist University Library regarding faculty attitudes and comments on the use of audio-visual materials for teaching. Results showed a fairly high level of AV material use for teaching, overall satisfaction regarding material content, and overall dissatisfaction regarding content currency and content variety. The article further discusses the Library's corresponding actions, including VHS conversion and relocation projects, revisiting AV collection development policy and procedures, a video-on-demand service for scholarly events and local TV programs, a new visual and audio search page, and the media consultancy service. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Health information technology initiatives created the framework for a national health information infrastructure that concomitantly fostered a need to build intellectual capacity within our current and future health information management (HIM) work force. Results from the 2008 HIM Educator Survey are discussed. Developed for voluntary electronic participation, the survey comprised a series of questions about educators' professional interests and responsibilities. Summary data from the 402 respondents are provided and highlight areas such as academic rank, teaching status, salary range, levels of interest in various issues, and use of virtual learning tools. Data from this survey provide insights into the concerns and challenges many HIM educators face in today's training institutions and suggest implications for future directions in work force training and professional development within the HIM field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents findings from a university-wide faculty survey on research resources at a top-tier research institution in the United States (U.S.). The researchers (faculty leaders) designed the original instrument, submitted it for critique and validation to a faculty senate's research body, and solicited participation from all colleges. The principal investigators sought to identify impediments to research and scholarship, as perceived by faculty. The questions posed were: What specific types of resources do faculty members deem important to facilitate their research activities? Are financial and non-financial resources deemed equally important? Do junior and senior faculty members differ in their views on the importance of various resources as valued resources? Are there differences across academic units in the degree to which particular resources are valued? The survey also elicited faculty perceptions of the level of research support actually received and demographic information about the faculty respondents, their recent research and scholarship activities, and their attitudes towards various types of incentives for research. The survey was distributed to all faculty members (1,474) at the University. It was completed by 305 faculty, yielding a response rate of 20.6%. Results obtained reveal that across all faculty ranks financial and material resources are deemed critical for supporting faculty members' research efforts. Intellectual and scholarly resources, such as the availability of research mentors, were deemed significantly more important by junior faculty. The results should be of interest to anyone seeking to enhance the research output of the academic enterprise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most postsecondary institutions are committed to internationalization of their curricula, global awareness, and appreciation for multiculturalism. However, proficiency in a foreign language plays a marginal role, at best, in reaching these goals. In an attempt to understand the perceptions about the role of foreign language in postsecondary education, liberal arts faculty and administrators were polled regarding their beliefs about foreign language. Responses indicate that regardless of their support for foreign language, faculty members generally believe that learning another language means instruction in grammar and lexicon, with little attention to culture. Although faculty generally agreed that proficiency in another language is important, degree programs in the service professions were viewed as too prescriptive to allow students enough time to learn another language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The primary objective of this study was to explore student and faculty perception of the objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) to assess the clinical competence of 5 th year medical students., Methods: Two validated tools were used to survey students' and faculty perception of the OSCE as an assessment tool. The questionnaires were self-administered and handed to the students immediately after the OSCE was conducted. Subjects were 29 female students who had completed their 3-week Internal Medicine rotation and 15 faculty members who had participated in evaluating the students. The response rate was 100%. The OSCE comprised of 21 active stations involving skills like history taking standardized patients were used, physical examination, and data interpretation for which real patients were used, physical examination, or management. Standardized or real patients were used in 16 stations., Results: Majority of students, 63.2% indicated that the OSCE assessed their skills fairly. This was also true for 80% thought the OSCE was a fair method of assessing students' skills as well as a better assessment tool than the traditional long/short case exams., Conclusion: The OSCE was positively perceived by 5 th year medical students and faculty members as a tool that can fairly assess students' clinical skills., Competing Interests: There are no conflicts of interest.

Objective: To describe a teaching challenge intended to increase faculty use of evidence-based and student-centered instructional strategies in the demanding school of pharmacy context with technology-savvy students., Design: A teaching challenge was created that required faculty members to incorporate a "new-to-you" innovative teaching method in a class, course, or experiential activity. The method was linked to at least 1 of 7 evidence-based principles for effective teaching. Faculty members were exposed to colleagues' teaching strategies via brief voluntary presentations at department meetings., Assessment: A post-challenge survey provided assessment data about the challenge. Responses to a baseline survey provided additional information about what faculty members were already doing (52% response rate). Eighty-one percent of faculty respondents completed the challenge. A wide array of new strategies (13 categories such as flipped classrooms and social media) was implemented and 75% included the use of technology. Nearly all respondents (96%) thought that participation in the challenge was worth the effort and planned to participate again the following year. All faculty members intended to continue using their new strategy and 56% planned additional modifications with future implementations. The challenge demonstrated how multiple goals of curricular improvement, faculty development, and student-centered instruction could be achieved together., Conclusion: The teaching challenge motivated most of the faculty members to try something new to them. Links between evidence-based principles and day-to-day activities were strengthened. The new-to-you design placed the challenge within reach of faculty members regardless of their background, subject, or experience.